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My name is Amy and I've been blogging on CDG since 2005. A mama of two living in Colorado, I'm passionate about attachment parenting, health and wellness, green living, essential oils, urban homesteading and unschooling/home schooling.

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Tag: play

We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. – George Bernard Shaw

It’s 11:41 p.m. on a Thursday as I lie in my bed listening to the murmur of my kids from the next room. They are very involved in their play — something that often occurs in the late hours of the night when one might typically expect children to be sleeping. But they play so well together in these late-night moments, creating elaborate stories, developing characters (tonight it’s a city of talking Matchbox cars), working through conflict, working on their communication skills, developing dialogue, and more. Who am I to interrupt them just because the clock says it’s nearly midnight?

Play is the work of the child. – Maria Montessori

According to Dr. Peter Gray, a research professor of psychology at Boston College and acclaimed author:

Human children, who have the most to learn, play far more than any other primates when they are allowed to do so. Play is the natural means by which children and other young mammals educate themselves. The most important skills that children everywhere must learn in order to live happy, productive, moral lives are skills that cannot be taught in school. Such skills cannot be taught at all. They are learned and practiced by children in play. These include the abilities to think creatively, to get along with other people and cooperate effectively, and to control their own impulses and emotions.

Research shows that playing is paramount to our physical, intellectual and socio-emotional development. The play I’m talking about here is the unstructured, spontaneous and imaginative escapades that we had in our childhoods; not the structured and organized sports of today. The benefits of playing are immense. They learn different academic concepts, the rules of behaviour with peers, manners, friendship, decision-making, conflict resolution, cooperation and competition.

Eventually I may ask them to wrap up their game for the night, but for now I am grateful that tomorrow (like most days) we have nowhere we must be in the morning. For now I will enjoy the sweet sound of my children getting along, the sound of imagination, the sound of play.

As unschoolers, we tried our best to take advantage of our vacation day from learning, but alas, we failed.

We’ve only been up for a couple of hours and already we’ve learned things! I learned a new exercise as part of the Daily Hiit and that the kids prefer their bagels untoasted. Ava learned how to spell several words, the color of her friends’ eyes and their Zodiac signs (she’s creating some of her friends in the Sims game). Julian claims he hasn’t learned anything, but I am skeptical. He’s watched a few gaming videos on YouTube, played with the chickens, collected eggs and then dried off some toys in a centrifuge (salad spinner).

Both kids also proceeded to ask questions about why it’s Learn Nothing Day. Those darn kids and their questions. How do they expect to NOT learn if they are always asking questions!

It’s only 12:41 p.m. so we still have the whole rest of the day to try to avoid learning, but we are meeting friends at the pool this afternoon. Is it possible to avoid all learning while swimming and being with your friends? We’ll do our best, but this is going to be a challenge!

If you want to learn more about unschooling, you can check out my post What is Unschooling?. Just whatever you do, don’t read it today. I wouldn’t want you learning something on Learn Nothing Day.

Are you an unschooler? Did you participate in Learn Nothing Day? How did it go for you? Please share in the comments! :)